Only 13 days are left until the end of the world and the Savior must rescue as many souls as possible to transport them to a new world moments before oblivion.

No, it’s not the return of Kirk Cameron in “Left Behind,” it’s the third coming of Lightning, the star of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII franchise.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII chronicles the final days of Nova Chrysalia, a world ravaged by a malevolent miasma known only as Chaos. The god, Bhunivelze, has awakened Lightning from her 500-year slumber to be the Savior. After playing this game, fans of the franchise may wish she stayed in bed.

What begins as an interesting finale to the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy is quickly buried by repetitive gameplay and a flawed plot. Players are on the clock as the game begins six days from the end of the world. Lightning must collect souls in order to extend the time Nova Chrysalia has to 13 days. She collects souls by completing tasks for the people of the planet.

Each day spans 24 virtual hours beginning at 6 a.m., and what Lightning accomplishes in those 24 hours is completely up to the player. The entire world is open to players from the get-go. They can choose to explore the dense woods of the Wildlands or enjoy the vibrant nightlife of Yusnaan, the city of revelry. Better yet, players can do both. With multiple modes of travel, Lightning can start a quest and then jump to another in the middle of it. Quests will often encourage this by making certain people, places and objects available only at certain times, forcing the player to kill time in the interim.

It’s a double-edged sword though, as there is too much emphasis on completing quests. What should be an emotional and moving adventure quickly turns into a string of monotonous, menial tasks: investigate this, collect that, defeat this, lather, rinse, repeat. What’s worse is that finishing quests is the only way to become stronger. Instead of awarding experience for fights, Lightning receives stat bonuses and gil coins for completing quests. This flaw renders non-quest-related fights almost meaningless.

That’s disappointing considering how well the game’s combat system works. Since Lightning is the only playable character, Square Enix has done away with the Paradigm system in favor of schemata. Reminiscent of Final Fantasy X-2’s dress spheres, Lightning’s abilities are now based on her outfit. For instance, a dress may come equipped with a potent fira spell, whereas a suit may offer a shield block. The player can then customize Lightning’s other attacks around those base abilities. It’s not just about the ability customization, however. The game features a variety of clothes, colors and accessories to choose from including sunglasses, moogle wings and even Elvis suits.

The combat system in Lightning Returns flows nicely. Lightning goes into battle with three schemata, each one with its own Active Time Battle (ATB) gauge. The gauge depletes as she uses her abilities, and regenerates when she is using another schema. Lightning can attack as long as she has ATB. The game allows players to vary Lightning’s fighting style with quick attacks that use less ATB and do less damage, or heavy attacks that cost more but are more devastating. With the push of a single button, Lightning can change her schemata, giving players a large arsenal that they can customize to their liking.

While the combat system is a welcome surprise, equally surprising is the game’s dull and uneventful story line. The main plot suffers from being fragmented into five quests in which Lightning encounters old friends. The game then offers rushed resolutions in which characters abandon goals they’ve pursued for centuries in a matter of seconds. Each main quest is resolved independently of the others and is hardly divergent from the tedious fetch-quests that plague the game.

Square Enix “rewards” fans of the series with a finale that fails to produce memorable moments. FFXIII ended a chapter with Sazh teasing suicide, and XIII-2 had players chasing Caius through the streets of a rainy Academia, but Lightning Returns is gravely silent in this regard.

The result is a game in which Lightning’s last hurrah feels more like a chore than an adventure.

A&E reporter John Wenzel has covered a variety of topics for The Denver Post over the years, including video games, comedy, music and the fine arts. He's been playing and loving video games since his dad brought home a sweet ColecoVision in 1983. Catch him on PSN as beardsandgum.

Hugh got his start writing for the Cheyenne and Woodmen Edition newspapers in Colorado Springs. In 2011 he moved to Denver where he has written for Denver Urban Spectrum and Colorado Community Media’s Wheat Ridge Transcript. Hugh joined The Denver Post in 2014 as an editorial assistant.